The 12.24.17 Issue

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The Story, on Twitter | Every article in this week’s @NYTmag is outstanding! Guantánamo, dance competitions, Peele — spent 3½ hours on a plane finishing it. — @EmilyInNYCCreditAmanda Demme for The New York Times

Wesley Morris wrote about the director Jordan Peele and what his pivotal film “Get Out” says about racism in America.

Morris speculates that “Get Out” might be “about the terror of black America accusing you of ‘talking white,’ ” but he should go deeper if he’s pursuing this argument. I would argue that this “terror” points to the lack of the black character’s recognition of having a colonized mind, of being in the very sunken place, or liable to fall into it, as well as the subsequent body-colonization and zombification, before the fact, that the film dramatizes. In a broader sense, I see the film as a critique, whether unconscious or not, of a certain kind of Western liberalism that ultimately fails to establish true social, political and economic equality, keeps whiteness in control and power and continues to subjugate black people and other people of color as a whole. It’s not like conservatism or ultraconservatism, but does it truly end or destabilize white supremacy? The film suggests that it cannot. Peele’s film is perhaps more profound than many people realize. John Keene, Jersey City

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I stayed after hours at work to read this article. So well written and palpable, and allowing the reader to feel and laugh and “see.” I’m so down with this one, I’m printing it out for friends. Yes to more of understanding and celebrating blackness in America. Yes to Jordan Peele and everyone else in his circles and orbits who bring his creativity and visions to life. CreativiTea, on nytimes.com

Jeffrey E. Stern wrote about Alka Pradhan, a human rights lawyer defending a man at Guantánamo Bay who is accused of running money for the Sept. 11 attacks.

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Alka Pradhan is a credit to her profession. I truly admire and respect her for taking the time to build relationships with detainees and for listening to their stories in an effort to give them a fair trial.

As I read the details of approved torture, my heart broke for the families who lost loved ones to terrorist attacks on American soil and for the families who lost loved ones to accusations of terrorist connections that have yet to be proved in a court of law. In reading about Pradhan’s relational approach, I have no doubt that she has a better chance of eliciting accurate intelligence than the “black site” interrogators did through their use of “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Research has shown that harsh techniques do not produce accurate intelligence. Subjects produce any intelligence to stop pain and suffering during sessions. What would happen if a new technique were introduced? If we were to utilize Pradhan’s culturally competent approach that incorporates empathy and listening presence, perhaps we could cultivate more superior intelligence sources, thereby reducing terrorism. M. Chanta Bhan, Cambridge, Mass.

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Stern writes that Pradhan “believes Americans don’t like to think about the fact that their country tortured people and put them in blindfolds and flew them to an island nation with which it had no diplomatic relations.” If Americans did care, this kind of extraterritorial prison would not exist. This prison — combined with all those black sites the United States is running around the world — is the reason the country lost any right to the moral high ground a long time ago. Thomas H. Jethan, Singapore

It is encouraging to know that people like Alka Pradhan exist. Her true humanity should be an inspiration to all.

Reading this story causes me to wonder: Is this protracted, quasi-legal quagmire a genuine attempt to deliver justice, or is it a proving ground for our new justice system?

For the past year we have seen repeated attacks on the judicial system by the Trump administration. Could we all face detention for protests against an increasingly authoritarian government? Lee Rose, Buffalo